Spicy Chicken Nuggets Will Come Back to Wendy's Because Chance the Rapper Made a Wish

“Back by popular demand” is mostly a meaningless marketing term. The “popular demand” often isn’t all that widespread. However, this is an instance where the phrase might genuinely apply...

wendy's spicy chicken nuggets chance the rapper
Cole Saladino/Thrillist
Cole Saladino/Thrillist

“Back by popular demand” is mostly a meaningless marketing term. The “popular demand” often isn’t all that widespread. However, this is an instance where the phrase might genuinely apply.

Wendy’s is conditionally bringing back its Spicy Chicken Nuggets, which almost certainly means they’re en route to your mouth. The popular nugs were unceremoniously pulled from the menu in early 2017. On May 4, Chance the Rapper tweeted about wanting to get those spicy chicken pieces back at this local Wendy’s. “Positive Affirmations for today,” he wrote, “I WILL have a good day, I Will succeed today, Wendy’s WILL bring back spicy nuggets at some point please please Lord let it be today.”

Well, Wendy’s has never seen a social media opportunity it didn’t like. The chain responded, “The people in charge say if you guys can get our tweet (this one right here) to 2 Million likes, they will bring SPICY CHICKEN NUGGETS BACK.”

While any challenge like this from a big company has a decent chance of meaning it will happen no matter what because the wheels of massive corporations turn slowly and deliberately. That seems especially likely since, as Brand Eating reported on May 2, Wendy's has quietly pulled chicken tenders (aka adult chicken nuggets) from its menu. Whether or not the fiery nuggets return is inevitable, the tweet is well on its way to delivering Spicy Chicken Nuggets to the people. By the afternoon of Cinco de Mayo the following day, the tweet had more than 1.6 million likes and 333,000 retweets. That's pretty huge, even if it's nowhere near as popular as good ol' #NugsForCarter.

Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email and subscribe here for our YouTube channel to get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.

Dustin Nelson is a Senior Staff Writer on the news team at Thrillist. Follow him @dlukenelson.